The pope and the heretic

by Michael White

Natural philosopher Giordano Bruno accepted nothing and challenged everything in his pursuit of an all-embracing system of thought, a vision that earned him the patronage of powerful royals including France's Henry III and England's Elizabeth I. But his radical theories put this Catholic priest in direct conflict with the Church. Arrested by the Inquisition, Bruno was convicted of heresy and eventually burned at the stake years before Galileo's famous trial. Yet even death could not stem the growing tide of this brilliant thinker's influence -- a philosophy that inspired some of the greatest minds in history, including Galileo, Newton, Spinoza, and even Shakespeare.